55 Comments
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Martin walsh's avatar

I think saka should take some responsibility. I think he was subbed off in part due to his booking and constant over reacting to the ref. Without that arteta may have left him on and he may have scored

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raptora's avatar
2mEdited

A couple of wrongfully given to Villa decisions when we should have gotten a couple of corners and throw-ins that lead to a scandalous booking had me jumping furiously myself. It felt like Saka was targeted by the refs. He was given nothing in his favor and they were giving everything against him.

Exactly the opposite of how they treat English NT stars but I won't speak any further.

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Martin walsh's avatar

Don’t disagree but his reaction got him the book I think and that didn’t help the team

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MG42's avatar

We have now dropped seven points from our last five games, is Arteta starting the bottling job early? Last match day things went our way by everyone dropping points, this match day we dropped points while everyone else gained. £65 mill for Vic not yet any good returns for that investment.

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raptora's avatar

It's worrying Ode walks right back into the lineup and Eze was sacrificed (who in return played like a petulant child). Does Ode being back means Eze at AM/SS will be history?

With Merino and Eze up front we played our best football this season. I highly doubt we dismantle Spuds and Bayern with Gyok and Ode in their places.

In that regard, Arteta picked the wrong team.

If he had decided to start Ode, Eze had no business on the left and we needed speed in transition - Martinelli.

I get that there are obvious partnerships he's decided on - Cala with Trossard (who wasn't ready so the closest thing to him is Eze) and MLS with Marti but he could been more flexible - not that starting MLS and Marti doesn't sound great (in hindsight).

It was an experimental lineup, I'm sure Arteta had to make plenty of compromises to come up with what he did due to plenty of factors, including the physical condition of some of our players returning from injury, but I expect him to learn cause there's no way he was happy with our performance.

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Esteban's avatar

Dont remember Gyok ever getting clean chance. Team is not set up to his strengths and this is on manager.

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Stephen Mitchell's avatar

Just to point out 3 dropped points to last second goals in the last few weeks seems to suggest a problem seeing out games on the road .....hope we can nick this old chestnut in the bud

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Jamie's avatar

Rice is going to play 4 million minutes this season and into the World Cup (assuming England make it to at least the QF).

If he doesn’t completely fall apart next season, he isn’t human.

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ben's avatar

Regardless who Arteta sign or how much does he spend the issue is the same, different year same problems for Arteta, doesn't seem he will ever learn from his mistakes.

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Useroz's avatar
1hEdited

We dropped a total of 5 points right at end of ET twice, poor for a leading team...

Vs Sunderland, only 1 sub with many visibility tired legs in last 10, 15 mins?

Vs Villa, slowed down /lost control of MF right after the equalizer, not Arteta's DNA to go for the kill? Clearly he wanted to win but why not overload attack by keeping Saka on? Wouldn't that also force Villa back a bit?

Last, our shot selections suck. Odegaard shot straight at Martinez twice , Saka tried placing a loose ball from 10 yards with 3 pairs of legs in front?? Surely should aim high on his fav left, not unlike Villas winning shot?!

Btw, Odegaard's still slow, Eze plays loose & didnt track Cash, Madueke ain't producing, and Gyokeres not getting goals for whatever reasons.

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Dissenter's avatar

Remember Pedro doesn’t

want to get on the players

.. but he still had lots of space to squeeze in a pretty good Gyokeres belter

That’s weak knees on display right there.

He’s just set the stage for a miserable half week

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Guns of SF's avatar

Come on Leeds

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into the red's avatar

A draw would be have been a fair result, which few would have complained about. So in that light we have only lost one point. Man City do look a bit ominous in the rear view mirror, but if you're not up for a fight for the title, you might as well stay at home.

Funny thing is if you remember the dramatics which dragged on for months over the summer over which would be the best signing between Gyok, Sesko and Isak, people getting very heated about the pros and cons - not a single one of them have done anything of note to justify their fees. The football gods do like a laugh. But there must be a moral there somewhere.

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Guns of SF's avatar

There were other cheaper and free names avail last summer. Too bad we didnt take a punt on some of them. Not getting Kvara was a huge miss IMO. Why dont we have more French players aside Sailba? I think Mike trying to make Spain team win the world cup.

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MG42's avatar

Your piece of writing just reiterates what many of us have said for years now, Arteta is excellent in setting up a defense but piss poor in setting up an offense. Your words "I cannot wait to see Kai Havertz back in the mixer and even Gabriel Jesus is preferable" support that he is seriously lacking sauce when choosing attacking players for the squad. This is his trend ever since 2019.

Still early, still on top of the two competitions that matter plus Arsenal fans are by now used to eternal hoping. So off to win the double, unless there is a repeat of what caused us to be 2nd in the EPL three years in a row.

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David's avatar

Arteta is piss poor at setting up an offense but some miracle ends the league 3 seasons in a row as the 2nd highest scoring team? How terrible is everyone else if the one who's 2nd is piss poor?

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MG42's avatar

Give the 1Billion that was given to Arteta to a half decent manager and trophies would have been the result. Because no trophies from Arteta since the 2020 FA Cup, that is the definition of piss poor. Keep it up.,

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Jamie's avatar

It’s very simple. We lost because PSG has a significantly higher wage bill than Arsenal’s.

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DT's avatar

Madueke is not that guy. Twinkle toes aside he shits the bed every time final product is required. If Saka plays the 90 today we win, I think.

Easy to rag on gyok but he was integral to our best run of form this season. It is worrying that he can’t impact games from the bench. If he has to start to have impact, it really kills a lot of options when Kai is back.

But the reason we are all bricking it is this is the same old shit. Mik was given 8 players this summer and somehow we still have an injury crisis because he pushes his core xi too hard. It’s amateur hour that we are down to 1 fit CB. And we all know that City are ruthless in the back half of a season. Our chance this year was to build an insurmountable lead through sensible squad rotation and instead the wheels are coming off. This isn’t knee jerk, it’s three poor away performances in a row that have seen 7 dropped points.

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Saffer Master's avatar

OK. we lost one of 19 games. Not going to panic. The fact is that this game should have been scheduled for tomorrow, we looked dead on our feet. For me, Marino needed to sit this one out and Gorkores should have started. Rice should have sat as well, or why do we have a midfielder on the bench. I am sure Nwaneri could have done better. Lets see Noni start a game on the left instead of Eze who was invisible. Oh well. We go again after a painful loss at the death. Not deserved, but we did not earn a win either.

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MG42's avatar

Arteta again met his Kryptonite Don Unai and is now 3 points behind us to the delight of all the other challengers.

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